Guest Column: Pay hikes approved for Boone County deputies

Ken Freeman, Pat Mattison and Cathy Ward

Saturday

Feb 26, 2011 at 12:01 AMFeb 26, 2011 at 10:18 AM

Attention, Boone County residents. By a vote of 6-3, the Boone County Board on Feb. 16 approved pay hikes for Boone County deputies that will give most a 4.3 percent raise beginning Dec. 1, 2011, and the rest at least a 4 percent raise beginning Dec. 1, 2012.

Attention, Boone County residents. By a vote of 6-3, the Boone County Board on Feb. 16 approved pay hikes for Boone County deputies that will give most a 4.3 percent raise beginning Dec. 1, 2011, and the rest at least a 4 percent raise beginning Dec. 1, 2012.

Here are the details. There is a zero increase for the year beginning December 2010, but seven deputies will get their step increase. Beginning Dec. 1, 2011, a total of 17 more deputies will get a 1.5 percent increase plus the average step of 2.8 percent — that’s a 4.3 percent increase — and beginning Dec. 1, 2012, the other eight will get a 1.5 percent increase, plus their step increase, so at least a 4 percent increase.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Negotiations with the corrections officers will no doubt begin immediately, as they were likely waiting to see what the deputies won before starting their negotiations. (Expect them to get the same package.)

Keep in mind that unemployment in Boone County is about 15 percent, that most residents (those of us paying the bills) had zero percent raises for at least the last two years and don’t expect any this year. Keep in mind that many had their savings dwindle, interest rates plummet and the value of their homes drop substantially. We know that many residents are extremely thrilled to have jobs with any benefits. Keep in mind that many governments are laying off staff, insisting on salary cuts, cutting benefits and decreasing hours.

We see several problems with this whole negotiations process. First, negotiations were done in secret meetings with a few board members. Some of these team members did not want the rest of us to even attend these closed meetings.

Board members were strictly forbidden to tell our residents (those paying the bills) any details from the secret meetings until the final vote was taken last week. Some board members said to tell taxpayers what was happening would be “bad-faith bargaining.” We call it honesty. That meant the public paying the bills only knew the details for five minutes before the final vote was taken.

We truly believe all board members want our employees to have fair and living wages and benefits. We know we do. But we believe our deputies are paid a fair salary, plus they get take-home cars, work 12-hour shifts (which means they work about three days and get four days off — 37.5 hours a week), often get overtime pay, 12 paid holidays, good vacation packages, plus sick pay, life insurance and many health benefits.

The question is “Can Boone County taxpayers afford these pay hikes?” Depends on whom you ask. To balance the current budget, road and bridge funds were raided and other funds transferred. Many board members fought hard to use the public safety sales tax that we promised would only be used to build the jail to boost the budget. We defeated that last year, but we expect many board members will try to raid that fund again this year.

Next up: Tax bills will soon be out. Don’t expect your taxes to go down even though home values decreased substantially. Someone has to pay for these pay hikes and others to come.

Those voting for the pay raises contend that this was the best deal they could get. We would rather have an arbitrator tell us we had to pay more than give in again.